LIFE AND LOSS IN GAUL

Sometime in the nineties BCE, a Greek philosopher named Posidonius made a lengthy visit to Gaul. He met and talked with many Celts, observing them in both war and peace. Unfortunately, most of the book he wrote about his Celtic experiences has been lost. Fortunately, the book was read by later authors—Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Julius Caesar among them—and they passed on many of Posidonius’s observations. It was from Posidonius, for example, that Diodorus Siculus learned that “the clothing of the Gauls is stunning. They wear long shirts dyed in various colors and pants that they call bracae [breeches]. Around their necks they fasten cloaks flowing in stripes or decorated with checkerboard squares.” Posidonius also described Celtic shields, helmets, war trumpets, weapons, and chain mail (apparently a Celtic invention) with great accuracy, as archaeological finds have proven. 

“Long-Haired Gaul” that is the translation of 'Gallia Comata', a Roman nickname for the territory north of the Roman province in southern Gaul. This independent Gaul and its people—including its long-haired warriors—were what Posidonius traveled to see and report on. He found that “the people dwell in great houses arched, constructed of planks and wicker, and covered with a heavy thatched roof. They have sheep and swine in abundance.” The main foods were “milk and all kinds of flesh, especially that of swine, which they eat both fresh and salted. Their swine live in the fields, and surpass in height, strength and swiftness.” Indeed, ancient Celtic art shows the important place pigs (especially wild boar) had in Celtic life and culture, and in medieval Celtic literature pork is almost always the favorite food of heroes. Celtic farmers also raised crops, including grain. They used hand tools—sickles, scythes, spades, pitchforks, axes—with iron blades fixed to wooden handles by a technique perfected by Celtic craftsmen. (The designs of such tools have remained pretty much the same ever since.) Their iron-tipped plows, pulled by cattle, were angled to cut through almost any type of soil. In addition, farmers of Posidonius’s time may already have been using the harvesting machine—a Celtic invention—that was described in the first century CE by Pliny the Elder: “In the provinces of Gaul very large frames fitted with teeth at the edge, and carried on two wheels, are driven through the corn [grain] by a team of oxen pushing from behind.” After harvest, the grain was often stored in pits in the ground, ingeniously constructed to keep out moisture, bacteria, mold, and anything else that might cause spoilage.
Although most people in Gaul (as elsewhere before the modern era) lived in rural areas and worked the land, there were cities. The largest  Celtic leaders showed their wealth, influence, and generosity by giving splendid feasts. Sometimes these were for the benefit of the entire community. For example, a Greek writer of the third century BCE told how a Galatian nobleman named Ariamnes decided to treat the whole country to a year-long feast: “He divided the land into sections, all marked out at suitable distances along the roads. At every station, he built a feasting hall . . . that held four hundred men or more. . . . Ariamnes then provided oxen, pigs, sheep, and every other kind of meat daily for the feasts, along with countless jars of wine and loaves of bread.” Ariamnes welcomed not just his own people but also travelers and passersby to his feasts. This kind of hospitality was a long-standing feature of Celtic society. Diodorus Siculus noted that the Celts “invite strangers to their banquets, and only after the meal do they ask who they are and of what they stand in need.” 
Many feasts were mainly for warriors and other leading men of the community. Posidonius seems to have attended some feasts of this nature during his travels in Gaul. From him we learn, “When a large number dine together, they sit around in a circle with the most influential man at the center. . . . Beside him sits the host and next, on either side, the others in order of distinction. Their shieldsmen stand behind them while their spearmen are seated in a circle on the opposite side and feast in common like their lords.” It was the practice at such feasts for the host to give the choicest cut of meat to the bravest warrior—or for that piece of meat to be claimed by the man who considered himself the best. Either way, if everyone agreed about who deserved the “hero’s portion,” there was no problem. But if another man challenged him, the two would engage in single combat. A lot of wine was usually served on these occasions, sometimes leading to a dangerous mix of drunkenness and hot tempers. It was not unknown for single combats and mock battles at feasts to lead to serious injury or even death.
Seem to have been in what is now southern Germany—one of them had a rampart five miles around that required sixty tons of iron to make the nails that held the timbers in place. In central France, archaeologists have been excavating Bibracte, the major city of the Aedui tribe. Their discoveries show that numerous artisans and tradespeople lived and worked there. Among other things, they crafted and sold iron tools and goods (the iron was mined nearby), jewelry of several kinds, glass, and a variety of items decorated with colored enamel. In addition, they minted gold and silver coins. Judging from the number of clay wine jars, a great deal of wine trading may also have gone on in Bibracte. On the other hand, perhaps extralarge amounts of wine were consumed there because it was a center of ceremony and government—we know, for example, that Bibracte was a site where tribal councils met.
Each Gaulish tribe was self-governing, and there were two basic forms of government. In the older, traditional form the tribe was ruled by a rix—a king or chief. The rix did not automatically inherit his rank from his father. It appears he was chosen by the high-ranking warriors of the tribe, and they could select whichever member of the royal family they thought would be the best leader. In the southern half of Gaul, however, the tribes were embracing a newer type of government, probably influenced by their contact with the Greeks and Romans. In this form, a tribal council elected one or more magistrates every year, and these officials had absolute authority during their term of office. If, however, two or more tribes joined together to fight a war, they might choose one man to temporarily act as rix to lead the combined armies.
When Posidonius visited Gaul, warfare between the different tribes was common. Generally, though, it appears to have been a kind of limited warfare. There was no destruction of towns or crops, no killing or harming of noncombatants. The battles were contests between small groups of noble warriors who fought according to a shared code of honor, which they had been trained in since childhood. Although the winners took the arms, horses, and jewelry of the losers, the ultimate prize was the glory of victory, and the hope that generations of bards would pass on songs and tales of the victors’ heroic deeds. To win even greater glory—and to prevent the loss of too many fighting men—warriors often engaged in single combat, as Diodorus learned from Posidonius: When Gaulish warriors face each other in battle, one will often come forward from his lines and challenge the best man of his opponents to fight him alone. This challenger will show off his weapons and try to strike fear in the hearts of his enemies. If someone accepts the challenge, this warrior in turn will begin boasting of his brave ancestors while he belittles his opponent—all in a mutual attempt to intimidate the other side.
In earlier times the Romans had seen this for themselves, and some Roman commanders had even accepted Celtic challenges to single combat. But it was not the Roman style of warfare, especially not after the Roman army was completely reorganized at the end of the second century BCE. Transformed from a body of citizens who were called up for temporary military duty as needed, it was now a full-time professional fighting force. Training and discipline were even stronger than before, and so was the might of Rome—as the Celts were about to discover.
“The Gauls practice a custom common to many Northern tribes,” Strabo reported. “In battle, they hang the heads of their slain enemies around the necks of their horses, then at home they hang them on pegs in their houses. Posidonius says he frequently saw the Gauls do this and was sickened at first but got used to it eventually.”
Diodorus Siculus added further information, no doubt also learned from Posidonius: “They embalm in cedar oil the heads of the most distinguished enemies, and preserve them carefully in a chest and display them with pride to strangers saying that for this head one of their ancestors, or his father, or the man himself refused the offer of a large sum of money.”
This gruesome practice was rooted in the deep Celtic belief that the human soul resided in the head. When a Celtic warrior kept the head of his enemy, he was honoring the man’s bravery and spirit. Probably he believed that he was also keeping some of that spirit for himself, and that it would help protect his home and family. And of course, hanging up the heads of dead enemies outside the house was a good way for a warrior to advertise his strength and skill in battle.
But more importantly, the head, as the container of the soul, was extremely powerful—perhaps almost divine. For this reason human heads were among the most common designs in Celtic artwork. They remained so for a long time, even decorating the doorways of some medieval Irish churches. 
In the 60s BCE a Germanic tribe, the Suebi, was making serious inroads into Gaul, and eastern Celtic tribes were being pushed westward by the Dacians. The Helvetii, who lived in what is now Switzerland, came under so much pressure from both north and east that the whole tribe decided to migrate to western Gaul and resettle near the Atlantic Ocean. They prepared carefully, even taking a census “name by name . . . of those who were able to bear arms; and likewise the boys, the old men, and the women, separately.” As reported by Julius Caesar, who later found this document, it was written in Greek letters and gave the total number of emigrants as 368,000.
In 59 BCE Caesar became governor of Roman Gaul. So when the Helvetii wanted to pass through this area on their way west, they had to ask his permission. He refused. They went through Aedui territory instead—and the Aedui turned to Caesar to help them deal with this invasion. As governor, Caesar had legions under his command, and he was only too happy to lead them against the Helvetii. 
In 58 BCE he followed the Helvetii into “Long-Haired Gaul,” defeated them near Bibracte, and sent the 110,000 survivors back where they had come from. 
At this point Caesar, too, should have gone back where he came from. Instead, he and his army advanced deeper into Gaul. He claimed that as Protector of Gaul, he had a duty to drive out the Germans who had established themselves there. He did so. And then he settled down for the winter in Bibracte, and began writing his Commentaries on the Gallic War, dispatches that he sent back to Rome like press releases. In debt and ambitious, Caesar had found a golden opportunity—literally—to improve his fortunes. Gaul was rich in land and resources and markets (Roman merchants did a booming business in Celtic cities). Moreover, the Celts had hundreds of gold mines, some of them very large-scale operations indeed. If Caesar could conquer Gaul, he would not only gain a reputation as a great general but would also be able to seize much of its wealth. This was a surefire route to power in Rome. A northern tribe, the Belgae, were first to react to Caesar’s move into Gaul and rise against him. He defeated them in a fierce battle in 57 BCE, then headed west to subdue the other outlying tribes. This way he had central Gaul encircled, cutting it off from outside supplies and assistance.
The Celtic tribes were unable to overcome their differences and unite against Caesar, and by the end of 56 BCE all of Gaul was his. He was starting to enjoy the prestige and riches he’d sought—in fact, during his years in Gaul he acquired so much gold that its price on the Roman market dropped by one-sixth.
In 55 and 54 BCE Caesar made two brief forays into Britain, the very edge of the known world, further increasing his heroic reputation back in Rome.
But when he returned to Gaul after the second expedition, he found the Celts in open rebellion. They were led by Ambiorix, chief of a tribe in what is now Belgium, whose warriors had destroyed an entire legion. It took Caesar’s forces a year of hard fighting to crush the uprising.
In 52 BCE there was an even more serious revolt. Its leader was Vercingetorix, whom Caesar himself described as a man of boundless energy with iron discipline. Vercingetorix was a noble from the Arverni tribe of central Gaul, and he must have had an unusually magnetic personality because he was able to do what almost no Celtic leader before had managed: unite the tribes. Not only did he have a strong following from among the Arverni, but he gathered together warriors from other tribes as well. As his movement grew, a multitribal council voted Vercingetorix war leader in command of all the tribes of Gaul. His army included some 15,000 warriors on horseback who, according to Dio Cassius, all swore that “no member of the cavalry who had not twice ridden through the enemy’s army, should ever again be received under a roof or be allowed to see his children, parents or wife.”
Caesar reacted to the uprising by besieging and destroying many of the cities of central Gaul. Vercingetorix’s forces successfully countered with guerrilla warfare. Caesar, his own cavalry far outnumbered by Vercingetorix’s, brought in German horsemen as mercenaries. With their help he and his legions began to close in on the rebels. Vercingetorix and his army took refuge in Alesia, a fortified city atop a high hill between two rivers. Caesar besieged Alesia. A Council of Gauls, as Caesar called it, assembled to gather an army to go to Vercingetorix’s aid: 240,000 warriors on foot and 8,000 on horseback, drawn from more than forty tribes. But while Vercingetorix waited for the relief force, his men were starving inside Alesia, and Caesar was strengthening his legions’ defenses. When the new Gaulish army did arrive, it couldn’t get past Caesar’s troops. From the hilltop the besieged watched the battle rage for five days and saw far more Celts die than Romans. Then Vercingetorix called a council of his men and said that since he had undertaken the war not for his own benefit “but on account of the general freedom; and since he must yield to fortune, he offered himself to them for either purpose, whether they should wish to atone to the Romans by his death, or surrender him alive.” The decision was made: “Vercingetorix, after putting on his most beautiful armor and decorating his horse, rode out through the gate. He made a circuit around Caesar, who remained seated, and then leaped down from his horse, stripped off his suit of armour, and seating himself at Caesar’s feet remained motionless, until he was delivered up to be kept in custody.” With that, the last great hope for Celtic independence in Gaul was crushed. By the time Caesar left Gaul in 50 BCE, he had destroyed more than eight hundred settlements and had killed or enslaved more than 2 million Celts. As for Vercingetorix, he was held captive in Rome for six years, then killed after being paraded through the streets in Caesar’s grand triumphal procession.


By Kathryn Hinds  In the book: Barbarians! Ancient Celts, Marshall Cavendish, Benchmark, New York, 2010, p.43-53. Edited and adapted to be posted by LC.

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